This Ben’s Lens is a view of the lobby of the Old Faithful Inn at Yellowstone National Park designed by architect Robert Reamer.  The hotel’s design pays homage to rustic Adirondack style architecture, but enlarged to a huge scale, as befitting its location. The hotel, which opened in 1904, included the seven-story high lobby pictured here with its fireplace chimney rising more than 80 feet. Philadelphia artist and photographer George Bacon Wood (1832-1909) visited the Old Faithful Inn soon after it opened.  The Wood collection of photographs contains more than 600 photographs including a small selection of views from the American West. Wood will be the subject of a Library Company of Philadelphia exhibition in 2014.

Sarah Weatherwax
Curator of Prints & Photographs

The following readers correctly identified the scene:
Francis W. Hoeber
Pamela Jo Meitzler